The Revived Tolkien Trivia

[Grimward]

*Tentatively emerges from cover taken to shelter from onslaught of verse*

Is it over?

Alas, I think I know the answer, but am on vacation at beach (although with mobile broadband this time), so unless a copy of a certain book (or two, perhaps!) falls into my possession here, cannot be certain. Will check back Friday...good luck and health to the rest of you in the meanwhile....

 

[pdurrant]

Eagles, singly and in groups, frequently save the day in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.

But they also come en-mass to the rescue in one notable battle of the First Age. Which event? And a quote please.

It seems I need to give you a clue. But that's tricky. Any name I can think of to mention will probably give it away straight away. But let's try you with Glorfindel.

 

[HareBrain]

I imagine that would be the rescue of the refugees from Gondolin as they passed through Cirith Thoronath:

Many are the songs that have been sung of the duel of Glorfindel with the Balrog upon a pinnacle of rock in that high place; and both fell to ruin in the abyss. But the eagles coming stooped upon the Orcs, and drove them shrieking back; and all were slain or cast into the deeps, so that rumour of the escape from Gondolin came not until long after to Morgoth's ears.

Silmarillion, ch23: "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"

 

[pdurrant]

I imagine that would be the rescue of the refugees from Gondolin as they passed through Cirith Thoronath:



Silmarillion, ch23: "Of Tuor and the Fall of Gondolin"

Absolutely right. Well done. Let's see if the eagles will catch this (curiously rabbit-like) bell as I throw it in the air, and carry it over to you....

 

[HareBrain]

Eagles! Aargh! Run for it!!

Have they gone?

Quick and easy one here. What's "hard and horrible"? Quote optional.

 

[Pyan]

One of Gollum's riddles, in the dark, deep under the Misty Mountains:

Then he thought the time had come to ask something hard and horrible. This is what he said:

This thing all things devours:
Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats high mountain down.

- the answer being, of course, Time...

The Hobbit, Riddles in the Dark

 

[HareBrain]

Quite right, Py. A hard, horri-bell for you, and the chance to think up something even Gollum would have been appalled by.

 

[Pyan]

Well, thank you, HB: I'm on holiday in the Lake District at the moment and have no books on hand, so it won't be that obscure a question...

What's the specific connection between the name of the grandson of Thrór and Nanduhirion?

 

[HareBrain]

Thorin, grandson of Thrór, is said to have gained the name Oakenshield at the Battle of Azanulbizar (Nanduhirion in Elvish) when he cast aside his cloven shield and cut off the branch of an oak to fend off his enemies' blows.

You didn't specify a quote, but that pretty much paraphrases a footnote from LOTR Appendix A, III: Durin's Folk.

 

[Pyan]

Correct-o - here's a hand-carved oaken bell for you, and it's your turn, too!...

 

[HareBrain]

*clonk*

Cheers, Pyan! Perfectly tuned.

Which pair were separated by the coming of Morgoth, and then again by one of Sauron's wars?

Quote(s) please (probably two, unless you want to do a lot of typing.)

 

[HareBrain]

To help a little, the quotes are within a page of each other, and the book is one you all have read.

 

[The Judge]

Sorry, I'm drawing a blank. When you say "pair" are we thinking twins?

 

[HareBrain]

No, sorry if that was misleading. I would have said "couple" but that seemed just a bit strong.

 

[HareBrain]

Er, anybody had any thoughts on this at all? Need another clue? I'm not much good at cryptic clues, but i can narrow it down if people want. I'd like some idea why everyone's getting stuck, though -- I didn't think it was so difficult.

 

[The Ace]

I'm assuming Beren and Tinuviel, but as I don't have the Silmarilion on-hand, I'll just have to cross my fingers.

 

[HareBrain]

*blinks blearily*

Whuh?

It's alive! Alive! I didn't kill it!

Sadly, Ace, that's not right. I'll make my earlier clue a bit more definite, in case it helps -- you only need to have read LOTR to answer this (and it's not in the appendices either)

 

[Clansman]

I am about to refer HB to TKA in the Lounge. It has been almost two months, and no one has bit. How about another clue? Something obvious, as I am feeling particularly dense today.

 

[HareBrain]

Which pair were separated by the coming of Morgoth, and then again by one of Sauron's wars?

Quote(s) please (probably two, unless you want to do a lot of typing.)

Morgoth isn't named, as such. And the war of Sauron's happened long after Morgoth was defeated.

To help a little, the quotes are within a page of each other, and the book is one you all have read.

OK, a bit less cryptic, it's LOTR. And not the appendices.

No, sorry if that was misleading. I would have said "couple" but that seemed just a bit strong.

What I was trying to get at here was that there is some suggestion of "romance".

I hope that's enough. Be careful of making assumptions about what kind of people these two are ...

 

[pdurrant]

Which pair were separated by the coming of Morgoth, and then again by one of Sauron's wars?

Could you possibly mean the Ents and the Entwives, and specifically Fangorn and Fimbrethil?

So the Entwives made gardens to live in. But we Ents went on wandering, and we only came to the gardens now and again. Then when the Darkness came in the North, the Entwives crossed the Great River, and made new gardens, and tilled new fields, and we saw them more seldom.

I remember it was long ago – in the time of the war between Sauron and the Men of the Sea – desire came over me to see Fimbrethil again. Very fair she was still in my eyes, when I had last seen her, though little like the Entmaiden of old. For the Entwives were bent and browned by their labour; their hair parched by the sun to the hue of ripe corn and their cheeks like red apples. Yet their eyes were still the eyes of our own people. We crossed over Anduin and came to their land; but we found a desert: it was all burned and uprooted, for war had passed over it. But the Entwives were not there. Long we called, and long we searched; and we asked all folk that we met which way the Entwives had gone. Some said they had never seen them; and some said that they had seen them walking away west, and some said east, and others south. But nowhere that we went could we find them.